Quran Garden

Two stories you have not heard before from Surah Al-Baqarah

Today, we bring you two stories from Surah Al-Baqarah; stories you have most likely not heard before.  These stories are not directly mentioned in the Surah.  

We put this fantastic collection together from the tafsir sessions of QuranGarden.  If you are new to the channel, let me give you a quick introduction,

Every week, since 2013, QuranGarden has been bringing you verse by verse English Tafsir of the Quran.  We recently finished the most in-depth explanation of Surah Al-Baqarah and started Surah Al-Imran.  The following stories are from QuranGarden Tafsir sessions. 

Let’s get started,

  

A life-Insurance Policy for your family

The first story comes from the Tafsir of aya 269.  More specifically, it was given as an example of how parents can ensure the future of their children even if they are very poor.   

Thousands of years ago, in a small village, there lived a very poor but righteous man.  He did not have much in life….a small hut and a good wife.  He earned his living doing manual labor for the people of his village.  This man was honest in all his dealing, even though the villagers around him were mostly greedy and corrupt. 

His dream in life was to buy a goat; a goat is easy to take care of, and it would give him and his family milk to drink, and some to sell.  He needed the extra income because his wife just gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. 

The man took all his savings and went to the town square to buy a goat, but he could not find a goat that he could afford because the merchants did not treat the poor well, and often cheated their customers.  The man was devastated.  

As he left the market, a vendor yelled

‘Hey you, come on back, I have something for you.”  “Why don’t you buy this calf!’

‘A calf” thought the man “I could never afford one.”  

He turned around and saw the calf the vendor was trying to sell him.  He immediately understood why.  It was an odd-looking calf that was very weak and sick. 

He thought to himself, “a calf is much more expensive to raise than a goat; it will not give me any milk for another year or two.  But this is all I can afford…maybe if I work extra hard and take excellent care of it, I can have a small fortune.”  

Sure enough, the man bought the calf and took on a couple of extra evening jobs to raise it.

After a few months of hard work, the man fell ill.  He tried to rest and drink whatever medicine he could afford.  But his health kept deteriorating.  He soon realized that he would not live for much longer. 

‘Who would take care of my family?” He thought. “My wife cannot afford to take care of my son and feed this calf…..I have to do something.”  

The next morning, he took the calf to the town square to look for someone to raise it for his family.

When the merchants saw this dying man with a calf, they rushed to take advantage of him.  He went from merchant to merchant, only to see greed in their eyes.  He could not trust them with his only possession.  Devastated, the man returned home with the calf. 

That night, during his prayers, he turned to God and said, "My Lord, Lord of Abraham and Jacob, I have tried my best, and I cannot find anyone whom I can trust but you.  I entrust my wife, my little boy, and my only possession, this calf, to your care." The next morning he told his wife about his prayers, and then he let the calf loose.  Later that day, this righteous man died.   

After a few years had passed, the mother turned to her grown son and said, “Son, your father left you a small fortune,  A calf that he bought a few months before he died; it should be a grown cow by now."

The son was astonished, “that is great! Where is it?”

She replied, "Your father knew I could not take care of it, so he entrusted it to God and set it free, why don’t you go and look for it?”

‘You are joking, right?! Look for it….You want me to find a cow in the fields years after my dad let it go?! I wouldn’t even know where to start” 

The mother looked at him and said, “Son, you are a good man; have some faith, be like your father and pray for God to guide you.’

That night, the son sat in prayer and said “Dear God, Lord of Abraham and Moses, I put my trust in you just as my father did, please guide me to my father’s cow."

The next morning the young man set on his search.  He aimlessly roamed from field to field, not even sure what he was looking for.  Shortly after noon, a cow came out of the woods, walked towards him, and stopped submissively.  He could barely believe his eyes.  It was exactly as his mom described.  He checked it all around; there were no markings on it; its ears have not been tagged; this cow belonged to no one! 

He peaked under the cow and found its udder overfilled with milk.  Thirsty from his search, he took a drink.  It was the best tasting milk he ever had! 

‘Wow!” the young man thought to himself. 

As he led the cow back to his hut, he started daydreaming, “Our poverty days are over!” “Thank God! Thank you, my Lord! We will have so much milk to drink, and so much leftover to sell.”  

‘I can afford medicine for my mother, and in a month or two, I can fix the leaky roof, and maybe buy a chicken or two!”  

‘If we sell enough of this tasty milk, I can get married next year.”  

The young man was so lost in his daydreams that he did not notice the town’s merchants rushing at him. 

“STOP,” one of them yelled, “STOP!” 

The young man was startled as these men rushed in and started circling his cow.  This went on for almost two minutes until one of them said,

‘This is it…this is the yellow cow Moses has been describing to us!  Here young man, take five gold coins and give us the cow.”  The young man hesitated.  Another merchant said, “Give him more, here take ten gold coins for the cow.”  

‘I…I cannot sell you this cow; it belongs to my family. I have to take it to my mother.”  

The merchants said “We will go with you.”

As they reached the hut, the merchants offered the mother 10 then 25 then 50 gold coins; all they heard from the mother was “I won’t sell for that price.”  

The son got agitated and whispered to his mother “MOM…the cow is worth much less than they are offering…PLEASE take the money!”  

But as the merchants got louder and more aggressive, the son became irritated with them and yelled, “I will not sell this cow without my mother’s approval even if you give me its skin-fill of gold.”  The mother smiled and said, "Let that be the price, The cow’s skin-fill of gold."

The merchants who had endlessly argued with Prophet Moses had no choice.  They had backed themselves into a corner and had to buy this cow at any price. 

Allah punished the merchants for their years of dishonesty and for the hardship they put Prophet Moses through.  Allah rewarded this low-income family because the father and mother were righteous people who took their faith seriously. 

Through the good deeds of the parents, God facilitated the affairs of this child and enriched him beyond the wealthiest people of the town.  Allah teaches us that our good deeds are the best insurance policy for our kids.    

You find many examples of this in the Quran, God says

Let those who would fear for the future of their own helpless children, if they were to die, show the same concern for orphans; let them be mindful of God and speak out for justice. (4,09)

And in aya 82 of Sura Al Kahf (the cave),

The wall belonged to two young orphans in the town, and there was buried treasure beneath it belonging to them. Their father had been a righteous man, so your Lord intended them to reach maturity and then dig up their treasure as a mercy from your Lord.

 

 

The second is story is titled “Be careful what you wish for; you may just get it.”

It comes to us from the Chinese culture.  We discussed it during the Tafsir of verse 216 of Surah Al-Baqarah to help explain that life’s events are not always what they seem. 

God says,

Prescribed for you is fighting, though you dislike it. It may well be that you dislike something, but it is good for you, and it may well be that you like something, but it is bad for you. God knows, and you do not know.  (Chapter 2, Verse 216)

A long time ago, there was a wise Chinese leader who owned vast lands and had many horses.   But there was one horse that was most beloved to him.  It was a sleek and muscled horse with a glossy black coat that shined brighter than silk.  The horse made its rider proud with its majestic gait. 

One day this horse escaped the pasture and did not return.  The guards spend days looking for it to no avail.  What a loss!

The town’s people rushed to console their leader for his loss; he smiled and said, “Why are you here to comfort me? Who knows, maybe this is not a bad or evil thing.”  

A few days later, the land keepers were surprised when they saw the majestic horse coming back towards the palace leading a herd of wild horses to the leader’s land.  Wow, What a fortune! When the town’s people heard, they went to congratulate their leader.  He smiled and said, “How do you know that this is good for me?”  

With all the new wild horses around, the leader’s son got excited and decided to tame one of them.  The wild horse bucked throwing the young man off its back.  He fell over and broke his leg.  Again, the town’s people came to console their leader.  He said, “Why are you here to comfort me? Who knows, maybe this is good for my family.”  

Barely a week had passed, the emperor declared war and ordered all young men to join the army, but the leader’s son was excused for his leg was broken.  Friends came again to congratulate the father for having his son safe by his side.  He said, “Are you absolutely sure this is a good thing for me?”

From this story, we learn not to rush and make judgments by looking at superficial matters, whether good or evil.  In fact, we must consider all life issues through the light of the following aya, God teaches us,

No misfortune can happen, either in the earth or in yourselves, that was not set down in writing before We brought it into being- that is easy for God-.  So you need not grieve for what you miss or gloat over what you gain. Allah does not love any vain or boastful person (57,22, 23)

 

 

 

 

 

Stories are the fun part of understanding the Quran, but the meaning of the Quran goes much deeper than a story.  Every week, we dive into the Tafsir of a new aya, word, and even individual letters of the Quran.  Each session runs about 10 minutes.  It may not be as exciting as a story, but it is always very rewarding.     

If you have not been a part of QuranGarden, we invite you to spend just 10 minutes of your day studying the Quran.  In a few weeks, you will understand the Quran like never before. 

To start, download the QuranGarden App on your phone.

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